The psychology of Android vs iOS

December 30, 2013

Transcript

Coming up on Adventures in Tech, the psychology that fuels the smartphone war.
iOS, Android, a bit of war of gadget rivalry that shows no signs of effacing.
But why do we get so tough with something as ordinary as phone software?
The answer lies in the psychological makeup of human kind and the prehistoric mental mind games
that our brains love to play.
I wanted to explore the science behind smartphone passion why do online discussions about Android or iOS so frequently turned aggressive.
But as it turns out grasping the intricacies mind is harder than we thought.
-You come across a tortoise lying facedown in the desert.
-You're in a desert.
-Subject uncooperative.
Luckily, we bumped in to
psychology lecturer, Mark Coulson who explained that while fans grouping together is a natural human process, the act of being part of these groups makes your brain do some very weird stuff.
-Group membership is an incredibly important thing.
We're all social species.
We're designed to operate in groups.
But one of the things that goes alongside group coherence is some sense of a difference from other groups and that might be translated into disliking or even aggression.
The technical name for these clubs
are ingroups and outgroups.
Humans can mentally place themselves in a group in minutes while research suggests that strong psychological allegiances can form of very trivial matters whether the iOS or Android is best or whether the heart stopping adventures of the handsome Captain Cook are more exciting than the boring war councils of Captain Picard.
Our tendency to form these gangs can have unwanted side effects.
Our minds end up twisting the way we hear information so that the group we belong to
seems so pariah.
-Not surprisingly perhaps when you're told information about a group you're not a member of.
You're more likely to remember the negative information and less likely to remember the positive information.
-Anyone with a human brain is vulnerable to this odd tribal behavior no matter how unimportant the thing you're siding with really is.
Perceiving Android or iOS fans as sworn enemies isn't particularly helpful, so why does this happen?
The answer is that once upon a time, this sort of uncouth behavior
could have kept you a life.
Compared to Mammoth ands and Saber-Tooth Tigers, prehistoric humans were basically useless, completely bereft of awesome claws or shaggy fur.
To stay alive, these pitiable apes have to stick together as a group.
And to make that team spirit happened, their brains emphasize the positive aspect of their own tribe while seeing the worst in all the groups.
-So, we are pack animal when animal [unk] in groups.
The best way to ensure with not so successful
structure genes to have processes that keep groups together.
-Of course this psychology stuff doesn't tell a whole story of why we feel so passionate about Android and iOS, but grasping how our caveman minds influence our actions does help us understand why we get so wound up.
We live in a mind-blowing age, but our daft old ape brains are still playing catch-up and we should be wary of letting this once useful mental oddities get the better of us.
After all, Android and iOS, they're both pretty cool.
-If we are people who are brought into iOS or Android, then these are both fantastic tools.
They're wonderful.
They allow us to do things, which are really valuable.
-Why do you think we get so passionate about on mobiles and who's the better captain, Cook or Picard?
Let me know and tune in next time for another adventure in tech.